JCP Shii: Postal service bills will open new market for banks

The government and the ruling parties on July 3 finalized bills that would pave the way for the privatization of the postal services.

Japanese Communist Party Chair Shii Kazuo made a criticism of the bills at a news conference on July 3.

He said that if the three postal undertakings (mail service at 24,000 post offices, postal savings, and post-office life insurance) are privatized, the change would produce a thousand evils and no good to the people.

Referring to the definition which the government made on "letters" in the Diet on the same day, Shii said the bills will virtually allow lucrative blanket advertisement mail to be delivered by private companies. If the bills are enacted, private companies will get the cream of the business and the nation's uniform mail system will break up.

In addition to giving rise to new groups of vested interests, the bills will also maintain the old structure of such interests among Liberal Democratic Party lawmakers who have influence in postal administration, Shii said.

Shii said that it is intolerable for the government and the ruling parties to deal with these bills only through closed-door negotiations, skipping discussion in parliament. He stated that the JCP demands that the bills be thoroughly discussed and thereafter be withdrawn. (end)